JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

The application of virtual reality has become increasingly extensive as this technology develops. In dental education, virtual reality is mainly used to assist or replace traditional methods of teaching clinical skills in preclinical training for several subjects, such as endodontics, prosthodontics, periodontics, implantology and dental surgery. Dental simulators allow repeatable and reversible preclinical training of clinical skills, and they also allow digital evaluation and feedback since they can record the training processes. Preclinical training assisted by dental simulators is economical and environmentally-friendly, as it requires less material for dental skills training. The application of dental simulators in teaching can make up for the deficiency of traditional teaching methods and reduce the teaching burden, improving convenience for both teachers and students. When combined with big data, cloud computing, 5G and deep learning technology, the dental simulator can give students individualized learning assistance and other functions depending on their diverse learning aptitudes in the future, to improve their learning effects.